The Secret of Kells is gorgeous, dramatic, funny, moving, alive with mystery, and bursting with details that continue to emerge viewing after viewing. It’s no surprise that it took so many years for Tomm Moore and his team to come up with another feature-length film: Song of the Sea. [Read more...]

Imagine that your favorite band tries on a new sound, or a new look. Imagine that fans are not happy, and they complain about it. Imagine that the band decides to push back… in song. It’s happened before. It’s happened quite frequently, actually. Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, The Decemberists, and U2 have all answered their fans and [Read More...]

In today’s episode of Sadly, This is Not a Satire… Check out this website promoting David and Goliath, a movie that hopes to attract audiences by condemning “Hollywood” as the Enemy of God. Note, I put “Hollywood” in quotes. Because… who exactly is this looming, powerful giant? I’m not going to post the David and Goliath trailer here: I [Read More...]

Two guys — a blogger and his friend — after watching the blu-ray of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part One on the friend’s giant plasma TV: Blogger: “So, let me get this straight. You were cheering for Katniss and her friends in their rebellion against the evil oppressors.” Friend: “Right.” Blogger: “But she’s acting in an anti-authoritarian way.” [Read more...]

This weekend, Sam Phillips joined Joe Henry onstage for what was reportedly a knockout, 2 1/2-hour concert. Oh, if only I could have teleported down to L.A. to at the Coronet. I’ve been in a bit of a funk, knowing that I was missing one of my dream concerts. To cheer myself up, I’m revisiting [Read More...]

When a music critic declares an album “perfect,” it tends to say more about that listener’s enthusiasm—and, perhaps, hubris—than it does about the record. So I’m holding myself back from that kind of overreach here. Suffice it to say that I’d have a hard time imagining a stronger “debut” record for Rhiannon Giddens than Tomorrow Is [Read More...]

[This review was included in my Favorite Films of 2014 post. But, for the archives, it gets a post of its own.] • In one scene, two young people play Connect Four. Do you remember Connect Four? I loved playing this game when I was a kid. There was the tic-tac-toe fun of trying to see [Read More...]

Ida, Ewa, Gloria, and now… the final contestant in this, the Looking Closer Beauty Pageant. Readers, let me catch you up: In early 2014, I began a four-part series in which I focused on films that captured the rare cinematic marvel of a living, breathing, three-dimensional female character — somebody who does not capture our attention [Read More...]

I may have sensed, on some level, the dissonance between such prejudice and Jesus’ own teachings. But if I did, I suppressed it. That sense of superiority, of being on the right team, of having Jesus’ favor: they felt too good to give up. One of the easiest targets on my denominational dartboard was liturgy. [Read more...]

This weekend, I had an incredible amount of writing to accomplish. So I only allowed myself two breaks, and I stuffed them with two movies. I chose wisely. The two I chose have a few things in common. Both films take us to London. Both bring beloved characters to life (one fictional, one historical). And both [Read More...]

So, I avoided seeing American Sniper for a few weeks because the highly politicized debate about it was so intense. I’d been given a very strong impression from certain ugly responses to the movie that it was a celebration of heroism in the Iraq War; that it glorified the killing of Iraqis; that it depicted the [Read More...]

Even more evidence that films about faith are alive and well in contemporary cinema (and that there is no need for a preachy “Christian movie industry”): As It Is In Heaven is an intelligent, riveting thriller that shows wisdom on the subject of cults and their appeal. [Read more...]

Jeffrey Overstreet

"Jeffrey is ... one of my favorite film critics. He writes with great lucidity and compassion about all sorts of movies, from all sorts of angles, but what I value most about his work is the theological-moral perspective he takes on things. He’s not a dogmatic scold, sifting through popular art looking for work that fits a rigid world view; he’s more interested in Looking Closer ... to discover what, if anything, the work is saying."

Follow Looking Closer!

Put Your Name in the Credits – Donate to Looking Closer

Jeffrey Overstreet has been volunteering his reviews and commentary on arts, faith, and culture for more than 15 years, working other jobs to keep this blog alive. As life gets busier, this becomes more challenging. Your support enables Looking Closer to continue. A donation says, "I appreciate what I read here. Thanks, Jeffrey." And it puts your name in the Credits.

Through a Screen Darkly

Jeffrey Overstreet's Through a Screen Darkly is a memoir of "dangerous moviegoing," which has become a popular university textbook on film, faith, and cultural engagement, and which earned praise from readers like Eugene Peterson, Gregory Wolfe, Scott Derrickson, Darren Aronofsky, and Dick Staub. Publisher's Weekly awarded it a "Starred Review."